Richard Panzer was interviewed for an article which appeared in The Record on Thursday, September 5th, 2002, with the title, "Like mother, like teenager: Closeness to her deters early sex."
The
article reports on a new study that found that "teenagers who say they
feel close to their mothers are less likely to start having sex early,
especially if they know their mothers disapprove of it."
The
study also reports, "Teens don't always understand that their mothers
frown on early sex. Even when their mothers strongly disapprove of it,
30 percent of girls and 45 percent of boys say they don't know that,'
and "many mother's remain ignorant of their teens' intimate lives. When teens report they are having sex, only 51 percent of their mothers think they are."
Richard was commenting on why many parents fail to be clear about their opposition to teen sex to the reporter who wrote,
"Richard
Panzer, founder of Free Teens USA, a group based in Westwood that
promotes abstinence before marriage, said the new report underscored
that many parents lack the confidence to discourage teen sex.
"The media is so incessant in sexualizing our culture that a lot of
parents think, 'Well, I don't want my kids to think I'm out of touch
and it's not realistic to talk about waiting,' " he said.
"Free
Teens say that your kids need to know what you think. A lot of parents
have a guilty conscience. They say they didn't wait until they got
married, so they don't want to be hypocrites. But do you want your kids
to experiment with drugs just because you did?"
